It is often the case that data processing equipment and medical devices have only one power supply, and therefore, one power cord. These types of equipment may often be employed in critical applications. For example, medical equipment may be used in situations where a person's life may be dependent upon the continuing operation of the medical device. Additionally, electronic data processing (EDP) equipment may be used in various systems where “downtime” may be extremely costly. Therefore, it is desirable to minimize the downtime of these devices.
One of the most significant causes of downtime for electronic equipment is loss of power. This may occur due to human error, failure of a component in the device, or failure of a component in the power delivery path that leads to the device. To provide for greater reliability, redundancy is often provided in these “mission-critical” applications by implementing systems that greatly increase the complexity of the application. Further, this redundancy often comes at a high price because each system generally will have a duplicate standby power supply to provide power in the event of an interruption of power from the main power supply.
It is against this background that the auto-switching duplex module of the present invention has been developed.